Classics

The scope of this article is to present the development of a web-based evaluation system that adjusts to the level of knowledge of each student. The underlying concept is to split the questions into pools (bins) of distinct difficulty at the same time assigning a different level of accuracy to each possible answer that the student may select. Given the weighted success score computed at each round, the system raises or lowers the level of the questions asked in the following round, thus adjusting the difficulty of the test according to the students’ performance. Once the score of the student improves or declines, the system again adjusts the difficulty of the questions accordingly until convergence is achieved and the students’ performance becomes stable. It is believed that the proposed evaluation system predicts the level of knowledge of the students in more correct ways compared with the traditional (non-adaptive) questionnaires, while giving the students the motivation to rerun the test until they become familiar with the course content. To illustrate the evaluation methodology proposed, an online system was developed and implemented for the evaluation of sixty-eight undergraduates attending a Greek Lyric Poetry course at the Department of Classics in Aristotle University of Thessaloniki, Greece. The results of the evaluation process, with the observations made, both about the operation of the system in real conditions and the performance of the students, are also discussed in the article.

Σύνηαξη μεθοδολογικού πλαιζίος για ηην ένηαξη ηων ΤΠΕ ζηην εκπαίδεςζη και ηη γλωζζική διδαζκαλία με παιδαγωγική ηεκμηπίωζη ΔΝΣΑΞΗ ΣΩΝ ΣΠΔ ΣΗ ΓΙΓΑΚΑΛΙΑ ΣΩΝ ΚΛΑΙΚΩΝ ΓΛΩΩΝ: ΣΟ ΠΡΟΓΡΑΜΜΑ ΠΟΤΓΩΝ ΣΗ ΙΣΑΛΙΑ ΓΙΑ ΣΗ ΓΔΤΣΔΡΟΒΑΘΜΙΑ ΔΚΠΑΙΓΔΤΗ Μειέηε ζην πιαίζην ηεο Πξάμεο «Γημιοσργία πρωηόησπης μεθοδολογίας εκπαιδεσηικών ζεναρίων βαζιζμένων ζε ΤΠΔ και δημιοσργία εκπαιδεσηικών ζεναρίων για ηα μαθήμαηα ηης Δλληνικής Γλώζζας ζηην Α'/βάθμια και Β'/βάθμια εκπαίδεσζη» MIS 296579 -ΟΡΗΕΟΝΣΗΑ ΠΡΑΞΖ, ζηνπο άμνλεο πξνηεξαηφηεηαο 1-2-3 ηνπ Δπηρεηξεζηαθνχ Πξνγξάκκαηνο «Δθπαίδεπζε θαη Γηα Βίνπ Μάζεζε», ε νπνία ζπγρξεκαηνδνηείηαη απφ ηελ Δπξσπατθή Έλσζε (Δπξσπατθφ Κνηλσληθφ Σακείν) θαη ην Διιεληθφ Γεκφζην.

This four-day conference, as well as marking the inauguration of the Centre for Ancient Rhetoric and Drama (C.A.R.D.) and the 10-year anniversary of the Department of Philology, University of the Peloponnese, will explore the close and interdependent relationship between the dramatist and the orator in the context of Athenian democracy by bringing together international scholars with expertise on different aspects of ANCIENT GREEK THEATRE AND ATTIC RHETORIC. We seek to raise questions about how tragic and comic plays composed in the classical and postclassical periods respond to the materiality of political conflict as this is eloquently and vehemently expressed in Attic speech-making. It is perhaps not surprising that the striking interdependence in interests and motivations of Athenian dramatists and orators should take centre stage in this wide-ranging debate about the special ways in which Greek drama of the fifth and fourth centuries was widely cross-

The scope of this paper is to present the development of a web-based evaluation system that adjusts to the level of knowledge of each student. The underlying concept is to split the questions into pools (bins) of distinct difficulty at the same time assigning a different level of accuracy to each possible answer that the student may select. Given the weighted success score computed at each round, the system raises or lowers the level of the questions asked in the following round, thus adjusting the difficulty of the test according to the students’ performance. Once the score of the student improves or declines, the system again adjusts the difficulty of the questions accordingly until convergence is achieved and the students’ performance becomes stable. It is believed that the proposed evaluation system predicts the level of knowledge of the students in more correct ways compared with the traditional (non-adaptive) questionnaires, while giving the students the motivation to rerun th...

The paper examines the potential link between two ancient Graeco-Roman resilient
cities, Olynthus and Potidaea. The study focuses on the impact of natural catastrophes
and violence on their societies. Both cities suffered great losses or disappeared as a result of destruction but also gained the advantage of revival. My purpose is to investigate the capacity of Olynthus and Potidaea in exhibiting diverse patterns of resilience while enduring war, hunger, and seaquake. Since their foundation, the urban clusters of Olynthus and Potidaea had occupied significant geographical locations with Potidaea being located on the Isthmus of Pallene and Olynthus in the hinterland of the Chalcidica peninsula with access to the gulf of Torone. My critical analysis focuses on the symbiotic relation enjoyed by the two cities since the Peloponnesian War. We will examine Olynthus’s manifold capacity to endure the elimination of its original population
(Hdt. 8.127) and become the epicentre of the Chalcidic League (Thuc. 1.58.2). Olynthus
benefitted from resettlement by inhabitants from the coastal cities, resulting in its
enlargement and a federation transcending ethnic and epichoric barriers. Despite the
dissolution of the league (Xen. Hell. 5.2.1ff.), the city of Olynthus managed to re-emerge.
It allied with Philip II, eventually gaining Potidaea. The latter – although founded as a
Corinthian colony – became a member of the Athenian League after a two-year siege
and its capitulation in 430/429 BCE. The town was resettled, serving as a major focal
point for the Athenians during the Peloponnesian War (Thuc. 1.56-65; 2.31.2; 2.31.58;
2.31.67; 2.31.70; 2.31.79; 4.7; 4.120f.; 129.3; 135.1; Syll.374f.). In the post-war era, Potidaea was returned to its former inhabitants, became a member of the Chalcidic League, and a base for Spartans in their war with Olynthus. Later, the non-Athenian inhabitants were enslaved by Philip and the city rendered to the Olynthians. After its utter destruction, Olynthus and the region formed the polis territory of the new foundation of Cassandra.
The paper concludes with a critical analysis offering at least a partial understanding of
the dynamics of the city-citizen interaction especially in the 4th and 3rd c. BCE.

In 1941 Lucien Febvre officially launched ‘history of emotions’ as a discipline on its own right. Ever since 1941, it has evolved into an increasingly productive and stimulating area of historical research. In the ’80s the ‘emotional’ or ‘affective’ turn was in full swing: historians interested in the history of society and mentalities in Medieval Europe and in the western world focusing on emotions. The resurgence of interest and its subsequent twenty year study of the interaction between historical conditions and the manifestations of emotions in Greek, Roman and Byzantine texts, images and material culture have already yielded its ἀπαρχαί as regards its set goal. In this thriving discipline, the historian’s task has been defined as follows: to examine the very diverse significance of emotions in society and culture in their broadest definitions (including religion, law, politics, etc.) [Chaniotis 2012, 15]. The discipline is based on the assumption that not only the way the emotions are perceived, namely feelings, but also the feelings themselves are learned. Culture and history are changing and so are feelings as well as their expression. The social relevance and potency of emotions is historically and culturally variable. In the view of many historians, emotion is, therefore, just as fundamental a category of history, as class, race or gender.
Over the past years a wide array of methodological approaches have been discussed. A particular school of thought focuses on the historical analysis of emotional norms and rules under the heading of emotionology. In recent years, the history of emotions intersected with modern historiographical approaches such as conceptual history, historical constructivism and the history of the body. Thus, the methodological spectrum of the history of emotions has been enriched by performative, constructivist and practice theory approaches. Currently fundamental methodological concepts include emotive, emotional habitus and emotional practice. Additionally, there are several terms that describe the different scope and binding effect of feeling cultures such as emotional community, emotional regime and emotional style. My aim is to provide a succinct survey of the most important methodological approaches, as they have been already applied in the study of emotions in Greek, Roman and Byzantine texts, images and material culture.

In 1863, the National Assembly of Greece approved the nomination of the Danish Prince Christian
William (1845-1913) as the kingdom’s new sovereign under the title ‘King George I of the
Hellenes’. Soon after his arrival in Greece, one of his primary acts was to modify the royal coat of
arms. The most significant feature of the altered
coat of arms was the escutcheon (fig. 1, right),
resting on a golden pedestal and supported by
two human figures depicting the Greek
mythological hero Herakles (Hercules), holding
a wooden club and wearing the skin of the
Nemean lion. The paper will discuss the
reception of Herakles in the heraldic emblem of
the Greek monarchy, as it represents a case of
cultural appropriation of antiquity in the long
19th c. along with the formation of the national
identity. Our purpose is to investigate the
elements of (dis-)continuity regarding the image of Herakles with the wooden club and the skin of
the Nemean lion in the new coats of arm, as a case of cultural and ideological appropriation and
as an outcome of post-revolutionary interplay between the modern identity of the newly founded
state and the reception of its ancient cultural heritage in the 19th and 20th century. We will discuss
the possible relation of the coats of arms with the “Map of Greece”, proposed by Rigas Velestinlis,
and his treatise “New Political Order of the Inhabitants of Roumeli, Asia Minor, the Mediterranean
Islands, Wallachia and Moldavia” [Νέα πολιτικὴ διοίκησις τῶν κατοίκων τῆς Ρούµελης, τῆς Μικρᾶς
Άσίας, τῶν Μεσογείων Νήσων καὶ τῆς Βλαχοµπογδανίας], published in Vienna (1797), drawing
heavily on the principles of the French Revolution.
The new coat of arms exemplified the political turmoil and the cultural dynamics surrounding the
newly established state of Greece as a kingdom. The motto of the Royal coat of arms depicted on
a golden ribbon below the pedestal reads: «Ἰσχύς µου ἡ ἀγάπη τοῦ λαοῦ» (“The people’s love is
my strength”). We discuss the political and cultural dynamics underlying the choice of this
mythological hero along with its religious overtones. We will pursue a series of questions
intertwined with the establishment of Greek monarchy: why King George I chose Herakles as an
emblematic symbol in the new coat of arms, how it underpinned the connections of the Greek
royal house with other European dynasties, and how these overtones relate to the new
constitution of a crowned democracy in Greece, what imagery this particular coat of arms lent
itself, and how it was used by critics of the Greek monarchy to negatively mark the monarch’s
interference into politics.

In the first book of his Histories Herodotus refers to statues, tripods and other offerings stored in treasures in Delphi. The reason for this is threefold. On a macroscopic level the link between the Delphic oracle and the attribution of material offerin gs, usually made of gold, from the Lydian kings point almost self-evidently to the key-role of Delphi in foreign politics between the Greek city states and the vast eastern empires, as illustrated in its role during the Persian wars. On a microscopic level, the enumeration and illustration of material artifacts and monuments in the narrative of the first book of Herodotean Histories gives credit to the narrative itself. In fact, it is used as an authorial strategy that contributes to the authorial credibility and enhances truthfulness. A third point is that through this enumeration and meticulous documentation of artifacts and offerings, usually attributed by the Lydian kings, the author underlines the conflict between fate and the possession of riches, with the latter being no secure measure for avoiding the first. This authorial strategy permeates the first book of Herodotus’ Histories. As a result, it will be argued that all the artifacts and the offerings mentioned represent cognitive points of reference, which form a solid ground for the audience of Histories and to which they can relate. They act as anchors to a reality that existed or still exists.
In the paper excerpts of the first book will be examined, where this authorial strategy is best illustrated. It shall also be attempted to examine how this authorial strategy enhances authorial credibility and if this strategy survives later on in other literary genres. Parallels of this authorial strategy will be sought in the first and fifth book of Thucydides’ Histories. Along these lines, it will also be examined to what extent this authorial strategy has affected fertilized other genres such as Pausanias’ Periegesis.

Εὔνοια as a notion and emotion features in literary and documentary sources of the fifth and fourth century B.C.E. In particular, its proliferation in literary texts and inscriptions of the fourth century is notable. It is clear that  its use as an ethical notion and its public exhibition has been significantly popularized in the fourth century B.C.E. This shift towards popularization calls for further investigation both in the literary and documentary sources so as to pin down the convergences and divergences in the use of εὔνοια in both the fifth and the fourth century B.C.E. Moreover, an in-depth analysis of the social and cultural processes constructing εὔνοια as an individual or collective emotion is also necessary in order to achieve a better understanding of its motivation and its public display. The recurrent use of the word in formulae of fourth century inscriptions combined with the abundant use of the notion in literary sources together provide a unique body of  material which calls for further investigation. The proposed research project will survey the diversity of the material but will also attempt in a systematic way to provide an overview of the use of εὔνοια both as an ethical notion and as an individual or collective emotion. Using the abundant epigraphic and literary sources, it will attempt to highlight the construction of εὔνοια through social, political and cultural achievements, its reciprocity between individual and society, and its management by both its agents and recipients.

The overarching argument of my paper is that fear prompts group formation and promotes collective action. In the tumultuous course of the 5th c. BCE, marked by the Peloponnesian war with international implications for both sides, and that of its aftermath, the 4th c. BCE, the management of fear was used as a preemptive tool for the exercise of power in politics. According to a traditional belief, shared also by other orators contemporary to Isocrates and Demosthenes, the world of politics and the domain of human affairs altogether are characterized by change, ambiguity and contingency, fuelled by and resulting to fear. Due to this vicious circle, citizens as agents seeking to deal with precariousness and contingency must be able to control their fear and decide what is appropriate to each occasion. In this case, an orator’s challenge is to assess the audience’s fear(s) and configure the community’s accepted beliefs and traditions in a new situation. Despite Aristotle’s Rhetoric being an excellent rhetorical vademecum, the Greek orators’ response to this challenge is understudied.
In my paper, I argue that Isocrates and Demosthenes use distinctive rhetorical configurations of fear. In many of their speeches, the two authors address their audience and seek to present the Athenian citizens with rhetorical configurations of “civic fear”. These configurations equal to coherent accounts of why, how, and under what circumstances fear can become a deliberative emotion. In this case, Isocrates’ and Demosthenes’ fear appeals are used as effective deliberative strategy. Along these lines, I focus on Isocrates’ On the Peace and Demosthenes’ three Philippics so as to examine how each author articulates his own strategy of fear appeals, how they coordinate these appeals with the values and commitments of different political and social groups which constitute the Athenian civic body. I also examine each orator manipulate the conflicting identities and interests of these groups in order to promote internal unity in the face of metus hostilis.

The scope of this paper is to present the development of a web-based evaluation system that adjusts to the level of knowledge of each student. The underlying concept is to split the questions into pools (bins) of distinct difficulty at the same time assigning a different level of accuracy to each possible answer that the student may select. Given the weighted success score computed at each round, the system raises or lowers the level of the questions asked in the following round, thus adjusting the difficulty of the test according to the students' performance. Once the score of the student improves or declines, the system again adjusts the difficulty of the questions accordingly until convergence is achieved and the students' performance becomes stable. It is believed that the proposed evaluation system predicts the level of knowledge of the students in more correct ways compared with the traditional (non-adaptive) questionnaires, while giving the students the motivation to rerun the test until they become familiar with the course content. To illustrate the evaluation methodology proposed, an online system was developed and implemented for the evaluation of sixty-eight undergraduates attending a Greek Lyric Poetry course at the